Just this past Saturday, he said, customers desperate for a slice of pizza at about 2:45 a.m. began pounding on the window and yelling.
Iftikhar said he allows customers who purchased pizza before 2 a.m. to stay past closing to finish their late-night meals at Tommy’s.
“If people are sitting and eating, it’s just so difficult for us to tell them to get out,” Iftikhar said.
But Iftikhar said he is then forced to keep the doors unlocked until all the customers leave and so students assume Tommy’s is still open.
“We can’t lock the doors, because if there’s a fire, God forbid, people would be trapped,” he said.
“Sometimes we try to put out the lights, but people just shout,” Iftikhar continued.
Iftikhar recently fired two employees who insulted students requesting pizza past closing time.
“I just can’t have people who are rude to my customers,” he said.
But the most pressing problem is the financial one, he said.
As he compared income with expenses on a yellow notepad yesterday, Iftikhar looked disheartened.
Under the previous ownership, he said the store brought in nearly $60,000 per month. This year, Iftikhar said he has made about $45,000.